Thursday 18 February 2016

New Model on the Ooyama Cable Line

Unit number 2 of Ooyama Sightseeing Electric Railway arrives at Ooyamadera Station

The Ooyama Cable Line is a funicular route in Isehara City, Kanagawa Prefecture, about 60 km southwest of Tokyo. The route was originally opened in 1931, but suspended in 1944 due to WWII. The operation was resumed in 1965 by newly established Ooyama Sightseeing Electric Railway Company, using the second generation vehicles called Tanzawa and Ooyama.

On October 1st last year, the third generation model, namely unit number 1 and 2, was launched. It was designed by Okabe Noriaki, who also designed the electric car 3000 series, "Allegra", for the Hakone Tozan Railway in 2014. The green colored bodies with gold and silver colored stripes are vivid and glorious. In timing with introducing the new model, the overhead wire on the track was removed, because it had been interrupting passengers' views. Instead of the wire, a lithium-ion battery is installed on each vehicle for supplying the electricity of indoor lights and in-car announcement apparatus. For your information, the vehicles still have pantographs for charging while standing at stations through rigid body overhead lines, which are installed only at the stations.

Connecting Ooyama Cable and Afuri Shrine stations, the route length of the Ooyama Cable Line is 0.8 km. There is one intermediate station, Ooyamadera, at the mid-point of the line. The height difference between the highest and lowest points of the route is 278 m. The maximum inclination of the route is 25.5 degrees. The track gauge size is 1,067 mm.


Unit number 2 (mountain side)

Official information about Ooyama Cable Line (in Japanese):